Albert Heschong

After leaving Fox, he returned to CBS and worked on the sitcom Pete and Gladys, the Western Have Gun – Will Travel, and later another sitcom The Cara Williams Show.

He received his final Emmy nomination for My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985). Heschong recalled that the number of sets was enormous, and executives became very nervous about the budget. As a result, he had to cut many corners.

He received an Emmy nomination for his art direction on Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1982). Much of his work on that project involved selecting locations in Natchez, Mississippi.

During the 1970s and 1980s, he worked on numerous television movies, including Steven Spielberg's Something Evil (1972). One of his favorites was the television movie Visions (1972), for which he designed a large rubble scene to show the aftermath from the explosion of a water treatment plant.

He left Gunsmoke during the 1968–69 season to work on Hawaii Five-O. He also covered a few episodes of the The Bob Newhart Show in the 1970s.

From 1965 to 1967, he also worked on another Western series, The Wild Wild West. He worked on that show from the start and designed all the sets. The writers came up with many strange concepts and effects that were a challenge, including a steam-driven wheel chair, a steam engine that spit flames, and other unusual vehicles. He did 48 episodes on Wild Wild West.

In addition to his regular art directing work, Heschong became the head of the CBS art department in 1964.

During the 1963–64 season, he also worked on The Great Adventure. The first episode of that series was "The Hunley", a story about a Civil War submarine. He prepared a full-size submarine (full-size exterior and interiors and miniatures) and docks for that production.

In 1961, Heschong became the production designer on the Western series Gunsmoke. When the series moved from Hollywood to Studio City, he had to restore and redesign the sets. The sets were built along one long street with multiple buildings and interiors, including the sheriff's office, a livery stable, a hotel lobby, and a doctor's office. He worked on about 140 episodes of Gunsmoke.

In the 1960s, he worked on multiple CBS series, including Gunsmoke (1961–1973), The Wild Wild West (1965–1967), and Hawaii Five-O (1968–1969). During the 1970s and 1980s, he worked principally on television movies, winning Emmy nominations for his work on Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn (1982) and My Wicked, Wicked Ways: The Legend of Errol Flynn (1985).

In 1959, he was hired by 20th Century Fox to work on the series Adventures in Paradise, a South Pacific adventure series created by James Michener. He did not stay at Fox for very long.

When Manulis left Climax! in 1956, Heschong followed him to Playhouse 90. Heschong won an Emmy Award for his art direction on the Rod Serling boxing drama Requiem for a Heavyweight (1956). For Requiem, his notable designs included sets at the boxing venue and a railroad car. Heschong's other notable Playhouse 90 productions included The Miracle Worker (1957), Helen Morgan (1957), Seven Against the Wall (1958), The Velvet Alley (1959), and Judgment at Nuremberg (1959). He designed the courtroom for Judgment at Nuremberg.

In the fall of 1955, he moved to Los Angeles to work for CBS. His first series for CBS was Climax! with Martin Manulis. His work for Climax! included Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1955) and The Circular Staircase (1956). Heschong also worked on the Meet Millie sitcom, the Red Skelton Hour, and an early-summer replacement show starring Johnny Carson. On the Skelton show, he was asked to design numerous trick shots.

In 1954, he began working on the United States Steel Hour, which aired on NBC. His work at the Steel Hour included P.O.W. (1953), The Last Notch (1954), Hedda Gabler (1954), A Garden in the Sea (1954), No Time for Sergeants (1955), and Freighter (1955). No Time for Sergeants featured highly stylized sets and was the first dramatic show that was aired with an audience. For The Last Notch, the first Western done for television, he designed an entire Western street scene. For A Garden in the Sea, he designed a villa in Venice, including a gondola approaching the villa.

In 1950, he was assigned to create all the settings for ABC's live drama Pulitzer Prize Playhouse. For the first episode, You Can't Take It with You, he built a large Victorian house set for $15,000.

A native of Cincinnati, he served in the United States Army during World War II and worked in scenic design for the live theater after the war. He began working for the American Broadcasting Company in 1949 and worked on the network's early live drama series, Pulitzer Prize Playhouse and Celanese Theatre. He continued to work on live television drama in the 1950s, working on United States Steel Hour, Climax!, and Playhouse 90. He won an Emmy Award for his art direction on Playhouse 90's 1956 production of Requiem for a Heavyweight.

Heschong married former Naomi Eva Harris in 1946. They had three children, Gregg, Eric, and Lisa. He lived in Encino, California. In 2001, he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at his home at age 82. He was posthumously inducted into the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame in 2011.

Elmer Albert Heschong (February 22, 1919 – March 1, 2001) was an American art director and production designer, principally for television. In a career that spanned more than 40 years, he worked on over 2,500 productions and was posthumously inducted into the Art Directors Guild Hall of Fame.